Glasgow Airport beats Edinburgh to top UK title

ALASTAIR DALTON

GLASGOW Airport has become the first Scottish airport to be named UK airport of the year in the National Transport Awards - beating rival Edinburgh.

The airport, which is Scotland’s second busiest, joins past winners Heathrow Terminal Five, Gatwick and Birmingham.

It saw off five other shortlisted airports as well as Edinburgh to collect the accolade - Birmingham, London City, Luton, Southend and Stansted.

Glasgow was also named as Scottish Airport of the Year at the Scottish Transport Awards in June.

The judges said the airport had won 20 new routes, including attracting Ryanair, and had completed a £20 million terminal upgrade, including new heating and ventilation.

It has trailed Edinburgh in passenger numbers since 2007 but is now growing faster, with passenger numbers by 11 per cent to 8.4 million in the year to August.

Edinburgh’s grew by 7.2 per cent to 10.8m, but it has suffered repeated criticism for lengthy security queues, which it said had now been resolved.

Glasgow Airport managing director Amanda McMillan said: “To have been named both Scottish and UK Airport of the Year is a tremendous honour and it is an achievement the 5,000 people who work at Glasgow Airport can be proud of.

“Together, we have continued to build on the success of 2014 by adding further new routes, which has translated into consistent passenger growth.”

Ms McMillan also highlighted Glasgow’s lack of security queue problems, in a pointed reference to its east coast rival.

She said: “We have also made a significant investment in enhancing our facilities for passengers, but the most pleasing aspect has been our operational performance.

“Despite securing an additional one million passengers, 99.4 per cent of passengers have passed through security in less than ten minutes during 2015.”